Walid Kanaan, Chief Creative Officer, TBWA\RAAD

  • With over 27 years of advertising experience across the Middle East and North Africa, Walid has worked on hundreds of multinational and regional brands. He managed to create landmark talk-of-the-town campaigns that generated tremendous impact in the media scene.
  • Walid’s trophy cabinet goes all the way back to 1992, spanning a multitude of prestigious local and regional award shows. This includes securing many Grand Prix at the Dubai Lynx, Mena Effies, WARC, Mena Cristal and Loeries.
  • His achievements also include esteemed international award shows such as the Cannes Lions, Clio, One Show, D&AD, Epica, Sabre, Cresta, New-York Festival and the London International Awards to name a few.
  • Walid graduated “major de promotion” in 1992 at the Academy Libanaise des beaux-arts (ALBA) – Beirut, receiving the IAA Award for Best Advertising Diploma. 
  • He began his professional journey with Publicis Beirut in 1992, and after four rewarding years, he joined Impact BBDO Beirut in 1997 as Creative Director. 
  • For more than 18 years, Walid worked within the Impact BBDO network, covering numerous key markets including Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Qatar, Yemen, Egypt and UAE, before moving back to Beirut in 2010 where he was promoted to Chief Creative Officer Levant & KSA.
  • In September 2015, Walid joined TBWA\RAAD as Chief Creative Officer Mena, propelling the network to win top ranks in regional award shows, winning Agency of the year & Network of the Year at Dubai Lynx award show in 2018, Regional agency group of the year at the Loeries in 2018 and 2019, the most Mena awarded agency at Cannes Lions, LIA 2018, NY Festival 2019 and Creative Agency of the year at the Mena Cristal Festival 2018.
  • TBWA\RAAD Dubai was selected 8th bravest agency on the planet by Contagious in 2018 and 2019.
  • Walid was ranked Chief Creative Officer of the Year in 2019 by B&W report, and top 14th CCO in the world according to Big Won report UK.
  • He was student jury president at Dubai Lynx, and a jury member in Cannes Lions Entertainment 2018 in addition to judging in many international award shows.
  • He founded a Comic Strip magazine in 2000, and and co-founded the Lebanese Syndicate of Graphic Arts and Illustration (SPGIL).
  • Walid published his second comic strip novel in 2021 titled “Jeddos”.
  • He has also won the Lebanese National Water Polo Championship for 15 consecutive years Breaking the Guinness World Record in the year 2020. He is married to Maya and father to 2 daughters, Elza and Layda.